Chai Trong-rong’s jail sentence cut

By Lee Hsin-fang / Staff Writer

Former Democratic Progressive Party legislator Chai Trong-rong talks to reporters in Taipei yesterday after being sentenced to three months for libel against former National Security Council secretary-general Su Chi.

Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times

Former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator Chai Trong-rong (蔡同榮) was sentenced to three months in prison, which can be commuted to fines, and two years probation by the Taiwan High Court yesterday in a slander case pertaining to Chai’s accusation that former National Security Council secretary-general Su Chi (蘇起) leaked research on maritime areas around Taiwan to China.

The Taiwan High Court yesterday changed an earlier verdict by the Taipei District Court -sentencing Chai to six months in prison in September 2010, and reduced the sentence to three months in prison.

At the time, the district court also ordered him to publish an apology in the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper).

While the ruling will not affect Chai’s ability to run in the May 27 DPP chairperson election, Chai expressed discontent over the verdict, adding he was only fulfilling his responsibility as a DPP legislator at the time by disclosing the alleged leak by President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) first council secretary-general.

Officials involved in the case had been accepting paychecks from the government while establishing contacts with Beijing, Chai said, adding they had also made reports to the council, on which Su had marked the word “noted” after viewing.

In his allegations, Chai said Su asked Major General Mao Hui-ming (毛惠民), one of his aides at the council, to order the Ministry of National Defense to provide data on maritime research to Beijing.

‘The research report was a highly classified document and was barred from disclosure, in particular to China. However, a document submitted to the UN by China was found to contain information regarding Taiwan’s maritime research and dates, which was evidence that the material had been handed by Taiwan to China,” Chai said.

Chai told the court at the time that his information had come from former deputy minister of national defense Michael Tsai (蔡明憲), who told him that Lee Chao-shing (李昭興), an academic on the maritime research team, had visited China.